The Vandal by Richard O’Connor (Popular Library, 1962)

In 1962, Photo-Lettering, Inc. issued Art Nouveau Xenotypes 1895–1905, a large collection of revivals of turn-of-the-century alphabets and typefaces. One of these “Xenotypes” added to their catalog around this time was No. 3835, an adaptation of Romanesque, originally designed by Herman Ihlenburg in 1874. The cover of the shown paperback edition of The Vandal from 1962 must have been an early application of this revival.

The cover art is by Mitchell Hooks (1923–2013). From the back cover:

Marius the Vandal, professional soldier, fought hard and well for the Byzantine Emperor. His services were rewarded with rank and privilege seldom given an outlander.

But jealous.eyes watched his rise to power, and court intrigues caught him off-guard as no battlefield maneuver ever could. When he fell in love with the Emperor’s favorite maiden, he was sent away on a clearly hopeless military campaign before the sweetness of their first embrace had left him. The girl was imprisoned in a distant convint …